Strangers Like Me: Meet 22-year-old Catherine

It’s time for another weekly installment of “The Strangers Like Me.” Hostels are a funny thing, you know. For reasons unexplainable, you share a random room in a random hostel in a random city with a random person on this random night. You think to yourself, “What could I possibly have in common with this person?” But you both came from somewhere and you’re both going somewhere. They might be strangers. But then you realize they’re strangers … like me.

Meet Catherine from Yoshkarola, Russia

Where’d I meet her?Barcelona, Spain
Why is she traveling?She just finished up studying abroad in Germany and chose to vacation in Spain.

Where else would she most like to go?England, both London and the countryside
What’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to her?Attending university in St. Petersburg, Russia, which is 24 hours away from her village by train. Though it’s been a challenge, it’s given her more career opportunities.
What’s on her bucket list?“I know that it’s never happened, but I’ve always dreamed about some specific skills, like (learning how) to control wind. It’s like a fairy tale, a thing that’s never happened — but still, maybe.” (She also wants to go parachuting and visit famous world cities.)
Let her tell you about the first time she saw the ocean.

“Until I was 21 years old, I had never seen the ocean or swam in it. It was in Italy, and it was good weather, and everything was beautiful.”